Phillip Toews grew up under the strict rules and frugality of the Mennonites in rural Kansas. As he broadened his horizons and eventually landed in New York, he found that he thrived on expanding boundaries and challenging conventional thinking.
Early Experiences
In October of 1987, during Phillip’s first year in the business, one of the fastest stock market crashes in history occurred. This informed his belief that maintaining assets can be an important element of investing.
The Challenge
On his way to New York he spent 5 years at a firm outside of Philadelphia where he discovered that some clients, despite their relative affluence, seemed to need 60% or more in stocks to remain funded through retirement. This posed a potential mathematical complication as a recession could cause portfolios to lose value and last an extended period of time. The probability that many clients could be forced to endure an extreme bear market was high. Based on this perspective, in 1990, Phillip worked on the first iteration of an algorithm-based system designed to attempt to limit risk of losses.
Toews Corporation is Born
After helping run risk managed models for five years, and learning many valuable and sometimes painful lessons, he set out at age 30, without a track record and zero assets under management to found Toews Corporation and began marketing to the advisory and brokerage community.
Through the Crises
Nearly three decades later, after three significant downturns – the internet bubble burst, the financial crisis, and COVID-19 – Phillip remains committed to following his system. His initial idea, to build algorithms designed to attempt to limit risk during extreme negative markets, has evolved into a suite of asset management strategies, mutual funds and ETF’s that are marketed to thousands of advisors across the country.